On my Tampa Bay team I have the following questions I'm running through in my head. Any help would be appreciated.

Question #1

Aaron Coles is currently in his first year of arbitration. He was in the top 5 in HRs last year and is in the top 5 again this season, however I am not to keen on his vL and vR numbers and his defense is average at best.

I just promoted Francisco Marin from the minors. He has the potential to be a great lefty hitter for me, and his glove makes him a better 1B than LF or RF.

I will keep them both for at least one more season, but Coles may not be worth the investment after his second season of arbitration. Would you rather have a little drop off in the OF defense with both and spend money on Coles, or let Coles go and put Marin in the 1B spot. Keep in mind there is no trading in this league.

Question #2

How early is too early? Al Lecuona is currently in his 2nd full season since being drafted. Is it too early to call him up?  His ratings are currently better (outside of his pitches) than my 5th starter, and he may be better than my 3rd and 4th starter (depending on how you look at the ratings). I'm currently a game behind for the division and I'm pretty certain I will at least be a wildcard this season. Would you call him up or wait another season or two?

Current 3-5 starters:

3. Vladimir Delgado
4. Ron Downs
5. Bobby Price

Thanks for the input everyone!

It's hard, for me, to contemplate a trade-less world.  Coles has a .900+ career OPS.  That isn't crap.  I don't know how hard it is to fill spots when you can't trade.  Is the FA pool deeper because more unwanted guys get non-tendered? etc.

As for the pitcher, to me at the moment he's better than Price, but not as good as Downs.  Therefore, he's not going to be in your playoff rotation.  Therefore, if you're going to make the playoffs anyway, I'd just let him keep developing in the minors.  Don't waste precious pre-arb years of a future #2/3 starter while he's still just a #5.          

1.  That's a salary/payroll question.   It all depends on what Coles wants in his 3rd arb.

2.  Lecuona has not business on a BL team right now.

gjello10: The strategy is an interesting one, and one that varies from person to person. Often times, so far, you see several older (32-36) free agents that are very good because they are in decline and asking for a good chunk of change over a long period of time. The FA market, especially for a good 1B, is usually a few bats deep.

MikeT23: What do you think Coles is worth?

#1: Who are your other COF options?  Hard to make that call in a vacuum, but I wouldn't mind Marin in RF, though he's a little light hitting for a 1B, don't you think?

#2: He's very young and still developing, and I'm hesitant to force guys unless you're actively looking for help at the ML level.

iain: The other OF's I have been playing with are:

Luis Oliva
Kevin Wilson (converted MIF)
Tony Rios
Gil Cole (in a pinch)

With Oliva offering better LF def. (range) with a decent bat I'd be less inclined to pay much of anything for 1B, when you have Marin waiting in the wings as a 1B/COF.

I'm assuming Wilson and Rios are your CF and RF, respectively... but they could also be your 2B and 3B pretty easily without losing anything defensively... so I guess it depends on your options there, too.

Not trying to get you to post yoru whole roster, but I find when you don't have trading at your disposal, everything is a domnio effect across the defensive spectrum.

So far no huge defensive issues, but I'm also only in my 3rd season with the team. We'll have to see down the road.

If you non-tendered Coles, could you get him back cheaper as a FA? Or do FAs get gobbled up at higher prices since it's the only way to fill a hole? I like Coles more tha Marin. Just a question of price.

Posted by asdlfef on 1/18/2012 11:57:00 AM (view original):
gjello10: The strategy is an interesting one, and one that varies from person to person. Often times, so far, you see several older (32-36) free agents that are very good because they are in decline and asking for a good chunk of change over a long period of time. The FA market, especially for a good 1B, is usually a few bats deep.

MikeT23: What do you think Coles is worth?

Depends on my salary structure.  A guy hitting 63 homers is worth quite a bit unless I have someone I like better behind him.    I'd ballpark him at 5-6m if I wasn't hurting for cap space. 

The high end FAs usually go extremely high. Thanks for the help guys!

I would not promote Lecuona, especially if you have a good AAA pitching coach. He is speeding his way up your system quite fast. I'd give him at least this entire full season at AAA, then see where he's at for the start of next season. I think he needs the chance to play an entire season at one level before making the final jump to ML.

I'm sort've confused as to how Coles is putting up those kind of numbers. I have a very similar 1B in my minors whom I thought was worthless... this guy:

Wiki Peguero

Does this guy have any value?

Coles' contact rating is double Peguero's.  They aren't all that similar.

Posted by nauds3000 on 1/19/2012 2:52:00 AM (view original):
I'm sort've confused as to how Coles is putting up those kind of numbers. I have a very similar 1B in my minors whom I thought was worthless... this guy:

Wiki Peguero

Does this guy have any value?

He's not worthless. He is a decent pinch hitting option at the very least. He's hit at every level of the minors. He's not great or anything. But he has his place in the right context.